Sevilla, a rhetorical question.

What I learned by accident yesterday is that the one kind of question that you cannot pose on social media is a rhetorical one. Put a question mark at the end of any sentence and people will chip in with an answer. So when I posted a few photos on the Heels for Dust Facebook site with the caption, 'Is there any city in Europe more dramatic and exotic than Sevilla?' I should not have been surprised when my rhetorical intent was roundly ignored and various alternatives were proposed - 'Barcelona', 'Venice'...I even answered myself, 'Granada'. What this shows is Europe is a continent of beautiful old cities. I still maintain, however, that Sevilla is extraordinarily dramatic and exotic.The drama comes from contrasts of scale. Many of the major monuments are built for magnificence, no matter what epoch they date from - the Arabic Alcazar, medieval Cathedral, the wide eighteenth century boulevards, or the neo-mujedar madness of Plaza d'Espagna from early last century - each aspires towards the epic.

Yet the barrio's in between are a warren of narrow whitewashed cuboid houses, remnants of the old Arabic quarters.

Along the riverside there are beautiful parks mixing deciduous trees with tall palms where the screeches of bright green parakeets mixes with the blackbird's sweet song. Architecture, flora and fauna all attest to the city's complex cultural heritage.

As we walked towards the Av. de Constituçion in a small square beyond the old tobacco works, opposite Starbucks, a group  performed flamenco. This in itself is not remarkable, there is a lot of street flamenco in Seville. Sadly, much of it seems to exude all the authenticity of a local amateur dramatic society's attempt at Carmen, featuring a lone woman with a big paper carnation glued to the side of her head, dressed in a flouncy polka dot skirt, dancing jerkily to a badly amplified CD of Andalucian melodies.

The group outside Starbucks were much better than that. The male and female dancers were accompanied by an excellent guitarist and traditional singer which meant there was energy and spontaneity between dancers and musicians. The dancers themselves seemed more controlled and assured than others. I am no expert, but I am sure Darcy would have been going on about their sinuous shaping, she might even have thrown in a comment about the strength of their core, I can't really comment as though this sounds good, I have no idea of what it means. Anyway, here is 57 seconds of them, you can judge for yourself

It's our third visit here so we felt no particular compunction to head for cultural hotspots or particular monuments. We simply mooched about then had lunch in place we knew served excellent tapas.

Though, Sevilla is dramatic and exotic it is also a vibrant modern city with an efficient tram system, busy traffic which is well managed, and a network of cycleways - it feels comfortable and lived in. It's not all picture-perfect, the main street has its fair share of American junk food joints and the old barrios near the Alcazar are full of tourist tat. None of this detracts from the city's overall appeal, the more familiar it becomes the more interesting it gets.

Where we are staying is opposite the river port. The Guadavir is deep enough for medium sized container ships and bulk carriers to use the docks. They are busy, we know this. We were stopped at the dysfunctional level crossing on the track back to the aire by two very affable policemen. They let us hop across before the slow moving freight train hauling half a kilometre of containers squealed its way towards the quays, an event which happened twice daily, at 4pm and 6am. 

The crane across the river operated all day emptying a bulk carrier of some kind. It was heartening to witness a busy port, though maybe someone could  have lubricated the crane's grab, as every time it deposited a load into a waiting truck it emitted a long metallic braying sound like a donkey in labour. Fortunately we spent very little of the day at the van and as night fell the crane driver headed home. As place to stay the Area Auto-caravanas is convenient rather than peaceful.